Management of storage resources is an essential aspect of implementing and maintaining storage area networks. Storage management may encompass a broad range of storage functions including file access, volume management and data backup. Of particular interest, storage management includes the ability to dynamically allocate individual storage units to shared storage groups and/or specific storage servers.
Dynamically allocating storage units is typically achieved through change commands issued from one or more of the client workstations having access to the storage area network. Because change commands can be scheduled for execution at a later time and can be issued (possibly concurrently) by several client workstations, it is important to verify the appropriateness of each change command before the request is implemented in the network. Specifically, it is necessary to determine if the desired changes embodied in the change commands are expressed in terms of the current network configuration.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved method for validating network change commands in a storage area network.